Canada announces new funding against gang and gun violence

Jeff Malo / November 8th, 2018

Blair and Goodale promised 86 million to help fight gun smuggling across the border.
(Pexels)

The Honorable Bill Blair and Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, Ralph Goodale, announced 86 million dollars in funding for federal law enforcement.

In the announcement, Goodale stated that 51.5 million dollars will go towards the Canada Border Services Agency to help prevent firearms from entering Canada and to help train and equip CBSA officers.

The remaining 34.1 million dollars will be allocated to the RCMP to enhance their new Integrated Criminal Firearms Initiative.

“The new initiative will build their capacity to gather intelligence from behind the scenes and to enforce the law on the front lines. This funding will ensure that front lines officers have access to an integrated suite of resources to support firearm investigations.” – Ralph Goodale, Canada’s Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness

According to statistics provided by the Government of Canada, there were 467 seizures of firearms in 2017 which was a 19 percent increase from 2016. The rate of violent firearm offence also increased between 2016 to 2017 by 7 percent.

In March this year, Goodale hosted a Summit on gun and gang violence with experts and stakeholders to discuss the ways to combat against gun violence.

“Gun and gang violence are serious problems for not just certain people or certain communities, gang violence and the activity that comes with it, are everyone’s problem.” – Ralph Goodale, Canada’s Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness

The funding from today’s announcement comes from the five year, 327.6 million dollar funding pool that federal government announced last year in November.